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40-547: The Teatro Colón (English: Columbus Theatre ) is a historic opera house in Buenos Aires , Argentina . It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic. According to a survey carried out by the acoustics expert Leo Beranek among leading international opera and orchestra directors, the Teatro Colón has the room with the best acoustics for opera and the second best for concerts in

80-451: A May 2008 reopening with Aida , became a three-year $ 100-million extravaganza with 1,500 workers including 130 professional architects and engineers." In addition, an exterior open-air stage was planned for an opening in 2011. In all, 60,000 square metres (645,835 sq ft) underwent updating, both inside and out. Some of the last performances immediately before closure of the theatre's building were Swan Lake on 30 September with

120-492: A full restoration work was started that would extend until 2010, when it was reopened on May 24 in commemoration of the Bicentennial of Argentina. The first Teatro Colón was designed by Charles Pellegrini , and proved to be a successful venue for over 30 years, with 2,500 seats with the inclusion of a separate gallery reserved only for people who were in mourning. The construction started in 1856 and completed in 1857. This

160-654: A more popular and intimate aspect (see, for example, Adam de la Halle 's Jeu de Robin et Marion ("Play of Robin and Marion"), in the 13th century). At the beginning of the 17th century, in Italy, singing underwent yet another renewal, with the emergence of Baroque art at the height of the Renaissance . Italy continues to have many working opera houses, such as the Teatro Massimo in Palermo (the biggest in

200-451: A publicly supported system. Early United States opera houses served a variety of functions in towns and cities, hosting community dances, fairs, plays, and vaudeville shows as well as operas and other musical events. In the 2000s, most opera and theatre companies are supported by funds from a combination of government and institutional grants , ticket sales, and private donations. In the 19th-century United States, many theaters were given

240-638: A world-famous operatic venue rivaling La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera in attracting most of the world's best opera singers and conductors. The Teatro was bombed by anarchists in 1910; Georges Clemenceau was present in Argentina during the attack. The bomb landed in the middle of the orchestra. Clemenceau describes the attack as follows: "The horror can not be exaggerated. A senior official told me that he had never seen such puddles of blood. The wounded were carried off as best as possible, and

280-624: The Argentine National Symphony Orchestra , conducted by Pedro Ignacio Calderón . While it was originally planned to reopen in time for the centenary on 25 May 2008, delays prevented this, and the house was finally reopened with a gala concert and 3D animations on 24 May 2010, the eve of its own 102nd birthday and the Argentina Bicentennial . Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and Act 2 of Puccini's La bohème were performed. A private concert to test

320-477: The Belgian architect Julio Dormal . The original auditorium "had eight boxes with metal grilles and a separate entrance, so that those in mourning could still attend performances, but remain dignifiedly sequestered from public view". The Colon's acoustics are considered to be so good as to place it in the top five performance venues in the world. Luciano Pavarotti held a similar opinion. The present theatre,

360-610: The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden , London), standing room for 1,000 and a stage which is 20 m wide, 15 m high and 20 m deep. The low-rise building has 6 floors above ground and 3 below ground, 7 elevators with a facade of applied masonry. It has a large central chandelier with 700 light bulbs. The original architect was the Italian Francesco Tamburini; after his death it was completed by

400-579: The biblical Book of Daniel , deals with Israel's captivity in Babylon . The play was written and performed by students of the Episcopal School of Beauvais , located in northern France. In the 15th century, sung theater of a religious nature found a special place in the mystery plays performed on cathedral squares. As before, they dealt with sacred subjects, but they were not about worship per se. Secular musical theater also existed, but had

440-544: The 1890 crisis and its effects were the cause for the delay in the completion of this second theater. Before the construction of the current Teatro Colón, opera performances were given in several theatres, of which the first Teatro Colón and the Teatro Opera were the most important. The principal company that performed at the Teatro Opera moved to the Teatro Colón in 1908. However, major companies also performed at

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480-541: The 20th-century artist Raúl Soldi during renovation work. In recent years, given the political and economic circumstances of Argentina, the Teatro Colón has suffered considerably, but a period of slow recovery began. The theatre underwent massive phased remodelling of both interior and exterior, initially while the house was still open, but production activities ceased at the end of December 2006 to allow full refurbishment. Initially, "what had been planned as an 18-month, $ 25-million renovation with 500 workers, scheduled for

520-553: The Ballet Estable del Teatro Colón and the Buenos Aires Philharmonic ( Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires ). and, on 28 October, the opera Boris Godunov was given featuring Orquesta Estable del Teatro Colón and the house chorus. The theatre's final performance before its closure for refurbishment works in 2005 was a concert on 1 November starring folklore singer Mercedes Sosa in performance with

560-458: The Neapolitan "picciuso", meaning "weepy", or "crybaby". He had one brother and one sister. During his childhood, Troilo listened to the bandoneon in the bars of his neighbourhood. At the age of 10, he convinced his mother to buy him his first bandoneon. Troilo kept the instrument and played it for the rest of his life. When he was 11, in 1925, Pichuco played his first performance in a bar. At

600-1873: The Plaza de Mayo until 1888 and the second located in front of the Plaza Lavalle, which took 20 years to be built until its inauguration in 1908. This land formerly housed the Park Station , the first railway station of the Argentine Republic as head of the Western Railway of Buenos Aires . Throughout its history the main figures of opera, classical music and world ballet have performed in the Colón theater, such as Arturo Toscanini , Vaslav Nijinsky , Luisa Tetrazzini , Enrico Caruso , Conchita Supervia , Regina Pacini , Anna Pavlova , Maya Plisetskaya , Margot Fonteyn , Mikhail Barishnikov , Antonio Gades , Richard Strauss , Igor Stravinsky , Camille Saint-Saens , Manuel de Falla , Aaron Copland , Herbert von Karajan , Leonard Bernstein , Mstislav Rostropovich , Zubin Mehta , Maria Callas , Renata Tebaldi , Leontyne Price , Ana Serrano Redonnet , Celia Torra , Yehudi Menuhin , Pau Casals , Rudolf Nureyev , Maurice Béjart , Plácido Domingo , José Carreras , Luciano Pavarotti , Lily Pons , Marina de Gabaráin , Victoria de los Ángeles , Reri Grist , Montserrat Caballé , Kiri Te Kanawa , among others, and Argentine artists such as Adelaida Negri , Héctor Panizza , Alberto Ginastera , Jorge Donn , Norma Fontenla , José Neglia , Olga Ferri , Julio Bocca , Maximiliano Guerra, Paloma Herrera , Daniel Barenboim , Martha Argerich , Astor Piazzolla , Aníbal Troilo and Osvaldo Pugliese . In

640-544: The Teatro Politeama and the Teatro Coliseo which opened in 1907. The theatre is bounded by the wide 9 de Julio Avenue (technically Cerrito Street), Libertad Street (the main entrance), Arturo Toscanini Street, and Tucumán Street. It is in the heart of the city on a site once occupied by Ferrocarril Oeste 's Plaza Parque station. The auditorium is horseshoe-shaped, has 2,487 seats (slightly more than

680-418: The abandonment of ancient theaters, which were transformed into gigantic stone quarries , like many other ancient buildings, both public or private. Music still had its place in worship. It continued to bring audiences together, but its content was completely renewed. The Jeu de Daniel ("Play of Daniel") was a sung play, characteristic of the medieval Renaissance of the 12th century . The subject, taken from

720-703: The acoustics attended by employees, architects, and others involved in the renovation occurred on 6 May 2010. On the 6 September 2013, the Teatro Colón hosted the Opening Ceremony of the 125th Session of the International Olympic Committee. 34°36′3.9″S 58°22′59.1″W  /  34.601083°S 58.383083°W  / -34.601083; -58.383083  ( Teatro Colón ) Opera house While some venues are constructed specifically for operas, other opera houses are part of larger performing arts centers. Indeed,

760-840: The age of 14, he formed his first quintet. He studied until his third year of high school at Escuela Superior de Comercio Carlos Pellegrini , one of the most prestigious high schools in Argentina and the whole of Latin America. In December 1930, Troilo was hired to be part of the famous Vardaro-Pugliese sextet of violinist Elvino Vardaro , pianist Osvaldo Pugliese , violinist Alfredo Gobbi , bandoneon player Miguel Jurado (later replaced by Ciriaco Ortiz), and double bass player Luis Addesso. Following this, Troilo played in numerous orchestras, including those of Juan "Pacho" Maglio, Julio de Caro , Juan d'Arienzo , Angel D'Agostino , and Juan Carlos Cobián . With his own orchestra, (whose members varied greatly), he played almost continuously, both live and in

800-614: The country), the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan . The Teatro San Cassiano in Venice was the world's first public opera house, inaugurated as such in 1637. In the 17th and 18th centuries, opera houses were often financed by rulers, nobles, and wealthy people who used patronage of the arts to endorse their political ambition and social position. There

840-485: The last decade other popular artists such as Chris Cornell , Katherine Jenkins , Sarah Brightman , Joss Stone , Branford Marsalis , play here. Among the main events of its history are the creation of stable bodies in the 1920s and its municipalization in 1931. In 1946, Peronism promoted a policy of openness to popular music and greater democratization of the public, which was reverted after its overthrow in 1955 and again resumed when democracy recovered in 1983. In 2006

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880-427: The name "opera house", even ones where opera was seldom if ever performed. Opera was viewed as a more respectable art form than theater ; calling a local theater an "opera house" therefore served to elevate it and overcome objections from those who found the theater morally objectionable. Notes Sources An%C3%ADbal Troilo Aníbal Carmelo Troilo (11 July 1914 – 18 May 1975), also known as Pichuco ,

920-555: The present Teatro Colón was laid in 1889 under the direction of architect Francesco Tamburini and his pupil, Vittorio Meano , who designed a theatre in the Italian style on a scale and with amenities which matched those in Europe. However, delays followed due to financial difficulties, arguments regarding the location, the death of Tamburini in 1891, the murder of Meano in 1904 and the death of Angelo Ferrari , an Italian businessman who

960-516: The prima ballerina, Lida Martinoli . When she retired from dancing, Martinoli began to choreograph. She died in Santa Fe . The tragic 1971 aviation death of two of the best known of these, Norma Fontenla and José Neglia , was commemorated with a monument in neighbouring Lavalle Square. With excellent acoustics and modern stage areas, the theatre's interior design features a rich scarlet and gold decor. The cupola contains canvas painted in 1966 by

1000-443: The recordings he made with vocalist Francisco Fiorentino from 1941 to 1943, known as milongas , were some of the favourites in tango salons. The renowned bandoneonist Astor Piazzolla played in and arranged for Troilo's orquesta típica during the period of 1939–1944. Aníbal Troilo was born on 11 July 1914, to Felisa Bagnoli and Aníbal Troilo, in the well-known barrio of Abasto . His father nicknamed him "Pichuco", an alteration of

1040-559: The relationship of consonance that it will have with one of these vases." The odeon built by Pericles near the Theater of Dionysus in Athens was, according to the Suda , intended for the rehearsal of music that was to be sung in the grand theater or, according to Plutarch , for the jury to audition musicians competing for a prize. Ancient theaters provided the ideal conditions, but it

1080-572: The room was emptied by the cries of fury, and the material damage repaired during the day which followed, not a woman of society missed the representation of the morrow. It is a fine trait of character that particularly honors the female element of the Argentine nation. I am not quite sure that in Paris the hall would have been full in such cases." Ballet stars performed at the Colón alongside Argentine dancers and classical instrumentalists. This included

1120-623: The second with that name, opened on 25 May 1908, after twenty years under construction, and was inaugurated with Aida by the Italian company directed by Luigi Mancinelli and tenor Amedeo Bassi , soprano Lucia Crestani (as Aida). The second presentation was Thomas' Hamlet with the baritone Titta Ruffo During the inaugural season seventeen operas were performed with famous stars such as Ruffo , Feodor Chaliapin in Boito 's Mefistofele , Antonio Paoli in Verdi 's Otello . The cornerstone of

1160-569: The studio, until 1975, the year of his death. From 1953 until the mid-60s, Troilo also played with guitarist Roberto Grela as a duo, which later became the Troilo-Grela Quartet. In 1968, having distanced himself from Grela, he formed his own ensemble, the Aníbal Troilo Quartet, which additionally consisted of Ubaldo de Lío on electric guitar, Osvaldo Berlingieri on piano, and Rafael del Bagno on double bass. Berlingieri

1200-642: The tango Responso . The " Supreme Bandoneón of Buenos Aires " died on 18 May 1975, at the Italian Hospital of Buenos Aires , from a stroke and subsequent cardiac arrest; he is buried in the "Rincón de los Notables" (Famous corner) of the La Chacarita cemetery , next to Agustín Magaldi and Roberto Goyeneche . In 2005, the National Congress of Argentina declared 11 July (Troilo's birthday) National Bandoneón Day, to commemorate one of

1240-409: The term opera house is often used as a term of prestige for any large performing arts center. Based on Aristoxenus 's musical system, and paying homage to the architects of ancient Greek theater , Vitruvius described, in the 1st century BC, in his treatise De architectura , the ideal acoustics of theaters. He explained the use of brazen vases that Mummius had brought to Rome after having had

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1280-446: The theater of Corinth demolished, and as they were probably used in the Theater of Pompey . As wooden theaters were naturally sonorous, these vases, placed between the seats on the stands, served as resonators in the stone buildings: "By means of this arrangement, the voice, which will come from the stage as from a center, will extend in circles, will strike in the cavities of the vases, and will be made stronger and clearer, according to

1320-418: The theatre's decline became clear and plans were made for massive renovations. After an initial start of works to restore the landmark in 2005, the theatre was closed for refurbishment from October 2006 to May 2010. It re-opened on 24 May 2010, with a programme for the 2010 season. The theatre was declared a National Historic Monument in 1991. The Colón theater operated in two buildings, the first located in

1360-505: The world. The present Colón replaced an original theatre which opened in 1857. Towards the end of the century, it became clear that a new theatre was needed, and after a 20-year process, the present theatre opened on 25 May 1908, with Giuseppe Verdi 's Aïda . The Teatro Colón was visited by the foremost singers and opera companies of the time, who would sometimes go on to other cities including Montevideo , Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo . After this period of huge international success,

1400-588: Was an Argentine tango musician. Troilo was a bandoneon player, composer, arranger, and bandleader in Argentina . His orquesta típica was among the most popular with social dancers during the golden age of tango (1940–1955), but he changed to a concert sound by the late 1950s. Troilo's orchestra is best known for its instrumentals , though he also recorded with many well-known vocalists such as Roberto Goyeneche , Edmundo Rivero and Francisco Fiorentino  [ es ] . His rhythmic instrumentals and

1440-413: Was celebrated with an opening on April 27, 1857, with Verdi 's La traviata , just four years after its Italian premiere. The production starred Sofia Vera Lorini as Violetta and Enrico Tamberlik as Alfredo. This theater was closed on September 13, 1888 to step aside for a new improved building, which was opened twenty years later on Libertad street, overlooking Plaza Lavalle . In that period of time,

1480-607: Was financing the new theatre. The building was finally completed in 1908 under the direction of the Belgian architect Julio Dormal who made some changes in the structure and left his mark in the French style of the decoration. The bas-reliefs and busts on the facade are the work of sculptor Luigi Trinchero . The theatre's opening on 25 May, the Día de la Patria in Argentina, featured a performance of Verdi's Aida and it quickly became

1520-483: Was later replaced by José Colángelo, who also played in the Aníbal Troilo Orchestra during its final years. In addition to this, Troilo recorded two songs ("El motivo" and "Volver") as a bandoneon duo with Astor Piazzolla . The death of Troilo's best friend, the poet Homero Manzi (1907–1951), caused him to go into a deep depression that lasted for more than a year. In the poet's memory, he composed

1560-785: Was no opera house in London when Henry Purcell was composing and the first opera house in Germany, the Oper am Gänsemarkt , was built in Hamburg in 1678, followed by the Oper am Brühl in Leipzig in 1693, and the Opernhaus vorm Salztor in Naumburg in 1701. With the rise of bourgeois and capitalist social forms in the 19th century, European culture moved away from its patronage system to

1600-579: Was not yet time for opera: the aim was to worship the deities, not to venerate the muses . The subject was religious, it was accompanied by singing and instrumental music. Worship was public, and the audience was made up of citizens as well as other categories of the population. Four centuries later, the Church abandoned spectacles as practiced in Antiquity. Histrions , representative of Greco-Roman civilization , gradually disappeared. The Middle Ages saw

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